Recap – Slovakia vs Canada: Canadians Open WJC With Dominating Win

8-0

SLOVAKIA

Robby Fabbri (via screen capture)

Game Notes:Dominant. The Canadians have speed, skill, and in this game, they excelled at moving the puck. Those superlatives weren’t restricted to the top-6. Team Canada’s third line that included Nic Petan and Robby Fabbri did the most damage with the two players combining for seven points. Defenceman Madison Bowey was plus-5 on the night. Canada’s top line of Connor McDavid with Nick Ritchie and Curtis Lazar went pointless. McDavid had six shots on goal.

Canadiens prospects. Slovakia’s captain, Martin Reway was held shotless and pointless with a minus-4 rating. Team Canada goaltender Zach Fucale had the equivalent of a period of work for the entire 60 minutes with 12 just saves for the shutout. Fucale will be the backup on Saturday night as Canada faces Germany with Winnipeg Jets prospect Eric Comrie getting the start.

Where are you Montreal? A disappointing Bell Centre crowd of only 14, 142 were in attendance, well short of a sellout.

“It was nice to see the offence come from our third and fourth lines. I really feel that with our speed up front, we were able to put them on their heels.”

“Connor, Duclair, Reinhart, they have tremendous speed and it’s tough to defend. And it’s tough when you have Brayden Point who you can put on any line and he adjusts. We have offence on every line and it’s up to us to find a way to bring it out, day in and day out.”

Robby Fabbri

“Points are one thing, but the way the team played the whole game, staying level headed, sticking to our game, it was good to see and good to win the game.”

“I get switched around once in a while, but to play with Nic Petan, he’s such a special player. So skilled and he works really hard. It’s easy just to feed off him.”

Slovakia forward Martin Reway

“It’s my third year here and we always played tight games with them. We know they’re good, but I told the guys we can play with them. But we didn’t play well in the first two periods.”

Social Media @All_Habs

Canada has always earned a World Jr. medal when recording a shutout win in their opening game (4 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze)